Shabbat: God’s Perfect Universe

Many people have a basic misconception regarding Shabbat. We tend to think of it as simply a day of R&R – a day to relax our minds and bodies from the stresses and tediousness of the workweek.

As worthy an idea as that is, the laws of Shabbat paint a very different picture. We may think of relaxation as driving to the beach, watching a good movie, or going shopping. Yet none of these activities are permitted on Shabbat. We might likewise expect actions requiring exertion to be forbidden. Yet, technically speaking, one may drag heavy pieces of furniture around his house the entire Shabbat day – while he may not strike a match or flip a light switch. Likewise, we travel on foot on Shabbat – though this requires much more effort than driving a car. If so, what is the purpose of the Shabbat laws – and how do they remind us that God "worked" for six days and "rested" on the seventh?

The idea is as follows. During the six days of Creation, the world was incomplete. God was engaged in a process of molding and acting upon the universe, transforming it from more primitive to more advanced states – light and darkness, heaven and earth, water and dry land, plants, aquatic life, terrestrials, and at last man.

When the first Shabbat arrived, God's work was finished. The world was perfect and complete. God no longer had to change the world and improve upon it. Everything the world required and would ever require existed and had been put into place. God had only to leave the universe as is, allowing all its components to function in harmony.

This was the idea of the "rest" God enjoyed on Shabbat (Genesis 2:2). It was not, of course, that an all-powerful God was "tired" and had to take a break from His work. It was that God had brought the world to a state of perfection. He no longer had to interfere with it: altering and modifying the world to improve it. God‘s handiwork was complete. His creation could "rest": it could exist just the way it was – with all its components coexisting in peace and harmony.

On Shabbat we recognize that God's world is perfect.

This phenomenon is reenacted each week on Shabbat. During the week we see the world as incomplete. We must labor: clear the land, till the soil, build shelters, plant, harvest, cook, manufacture – all in order to make the world a suitable habitat for man. For six days, we – as did God – must force our mark upon the world – altering it from its natural state in order to make it a vessel worthy of man.

On Shabbat we recognize that God's world is perfect.

When Shabbat arrives, we are commanded to cease interfering with the world. We no longer assert our mastery over it, changing it from its natural state. We may not build, burn, work the earth – or even pick a flower. Any act that changes the earth from its natural state in the smallest way contradicts the spirit of Shabbat. We cease doing acts of creation – and by so doing, attest that the world as created by God is perfect.

When God completed Creation and the world enjoyed its first Shabbat, it should have remained eternally in a complete and perfect state. An everlasting Shabbat should have ensued. However, with the primordial Sin of Adam, the world fell. Man would no longer live in a perfect world – enjoying the ready-to-eat fruits of the Garden of Eden through no labor of his own. He would have to work – to conquer the world and eat bread only through the sweat of his brow.

Ultimately, the world will again be perfected in the End of Days. Man will again live in harmony with the world and nature, devoting his being and energies to God alone. That period is known as "yom shekulo Shabbat" – a time of eternal Shabbat, a time we eagerly await today.

Yet once a week, God granted Israel a small taste of that ultimate, blissful state – the gift of Shabbat. The Talmud writes that Shabbat is 1/60th of the World to Come (Brachot 57b). On Shabbat, the world reverts in a small way to its perfected state – to a fully functional and harmonious earth, requiring no human effort or intervention. Man does not have to labor to sustain himself. The Talmud writes that expenses a person spends for Shabbat are reimbursed by God Himself (Beitzah 16a). The Shabbat universe is capable of sustaining man through no effort or expense of his own. And to the extent that Shabbat is meaningful to us, that plane of existence can become our reality today.

Yet there is something even more curious about Shabbat. On the one hand, it is the holiest and most spiritual day of the week. On the other, it is a physically pleasurable day. We dress well, eat well, and celebrate the day as lavishly as we are able. Why are physical enjoyments appropriate for such a spiritual day? And further, wouldn’t indulging in the physical side of the world detract from our appreciation of holiness? How is it that on Shabbat the two coexist?

To explain, we must introduce one more concept. The more perfect an object is in this world, the more it is a reflection of God. "Perfect" creations reflect and attest to a perfect Creator. Further, the more a physical object (or time period) reflects sanctity, the more it becomes aligned with sanctity and acts as a conduit for it. Thus, physically-complete creations, in attesting to God's glorious handiwork, become spiritually charged as well. They allow spiritual forces to flow unobstructed from the heavens, infusing and energizing the physical world with spiritual vitality.

Thus, Shabbat, a time in which the physical universe is perfect, is a time of enormous spiritual potential as well. It is a time when the physical and spiritual worlds become aligned. On Shabbat the world is not only in harmony with itself; it is in harmony with God as well.

As a result, Shabbat is a time of both spiritual and physical enjoyment – a time in which the two types of experiences coalesce in complete harmony and together enhance our appreciation of God. During the week the spiritual and physical sides of creation may well conflict: The more physically indulgent a person is, the less spiritual he is going to be. But on Shabbat they complement. Physical and spiritual all merge into one magnificent whole, serving as a reflection of the one all-encompassing God who created them.

(Based in part on "Sabbath – Day of Eternity" by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, published by Artscroll.com as a part of the Aryeh Kaplan Anthology.)

Dovid Rosenfeld, a native of the Washington, D.C. area, works both as a programmer for aish.com and as a responder for its Ask the Rabbi service. He also serves as a volunteer writer for Torah.org. He lives with his wife and family in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel.

Rabbi Rosenfeld's son Zvi recently published his first book, The Ring of Fate, a riveting, fast-paced fantasy novel which is also completely kosher in both language and subject matter. It is available as both book and ebook. It is sold by Booklocker.com, as well as by Amazon.com and all the major on-line sellers.

Enlightening article. Thank you. Slightly confused on one thing tjo. Whrn in Jerusalem 3 yrs ago ..it was Shabat , was in a hotel and the kosher rule was that those celebrating Shabat fid not use the lift....in fact wad not to touch yhe butyon for the lift because to my understanding that meant eork which wadn, t allowed. ..they walked ip snd down the stairs though...idn, t this tsking things too fsr...extreme? Loved being in Jerusalem, love the Jewish people. ..

(7)
Anonymous,
January 21, 2014 12:02 AM

The Command of Shabbat

Why does it seem that more and more people recover from Shabbat only to continue with the works that set them apart from the God of Creation?I could be wrong but with the Shabbat being practiced from its inception within the Jewish faith - why is there so much antithesis?

(6)
Elizabeth,
December 3, 2013 6:56 PM

Amazing!

Wow! This is amazing, now I know the true meaning of Shabbos.

(5)
Joshua Mayorga,
October 19, 2013 9:30 PM

shabbat shalom

Articles like these make so much sense when we participate and celebrate Shabbat every week after what seems like a long week. I feel so much closer to God and thank him for such a blessed day.

(4)
Ted,
October 2, 2013 6:09 PM

God created only a "very good" world

Sorry but my understanding of what the great Rabbinic Scholars tell us is that God created a "very good" world and that it is up to us improve the world by being good human beings (and that is what is meant by being "created in the image of God")...it was never perfectAlso the notion of "sin of Adam" and the "fall of man" is a Christian theological idea. The Rabbis teach of the 'rise of man' in that we understand (as mature adults) that life is often a struggle and that we are mortal. It is exactly these things that make us human and can add meaning in our lives.

Dovid Rosenfeld,
October 3, 2013 6:55 AM

in response...

Thank you for your insightful comment. You're right that God created man to improve an imperfect world. This was Adam's original mission in the Garden. He was given a single command - not to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Had he done so, the world's mission would have been complete and he would have entered a day of eternal Shabbat - of both spiritual and physical perfection on that first Shabbat of creation.

Now, however, that man sinned and evil entered the human psyche, our path to perfecting the world is much longer and more difficult. Not only is our fallen world spiritually far from perfection, but it is physically so as well. Today we must improve the world on both fronts. Yet Shabbat is reminiscent of the ideal state the world - the state it will achieve after man's mission is complete - a world both spiritually and physically complete.

I was also somewhat taken aback by your assertion that the fall of man is a Christian notion. Adam's sin and banishment from the Garden are about as explicit in the Torah as can be.

daniel bortz,
September 18, 2014 9:18 PM

Original Sin

I think Ted's referring to the concept of man being inherently messed up - original sin - according to christianity, because of Adam's mistake. Judaism (esp. Chasidut) emphasizes that we are inherently good, and no matter how much we mess up and cover that good up, we can return ("Teshuva") to that state of good. But Ted, the idea that evil entered the world through Adam's sin and that human beings fell from the exalted level they were at Adam's time, is a Jewish idea

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Betzalel Berkman,
September 23, 2013 7:42 PM

I am a YU student and there is a program called Torah Tours. This program is for YU students to go to different communities and enhance the Simcha of Shabbat and different holidays that we go to. I am giving a speech to the shul during shalosh seudos. I'm going to give this speech over. I think this is great. Most people don't understand why we celebrate Shabbat, I think this a great reason.

(2)
Anonymous,
September 1, 2013 10:42 PM

amazing!

(1)
Talya,
August 30, 2013 7:52 PM

This hit home

Of all the articles I've read/ heard about why we keep the Shabbos, this one seemed to really hit it. Thank you! I will be thinking of this as I welcome the Shabbos in a few hours. G-d is perfect and all that He does is perfect. Ein Od Milvado.